Behind Enemy Lines: Arizona Cardinals host Bucs

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (3) during the first half of their NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

The Buccaneers (2-2) dropped a close game to the New England Patriots, 19-14, at home last week. Quarterback Jameis Winston completed 26 of 46 pass attempts for 334 yards and one touchdown, and running back Doug Martin carried the ball 13 times for 74 yards and a touchdown. The Bucs’ defense held Tom Brady to one touchdown and one interception.

All week long, we’ll take you to Tampa Bay to give you an inside look at what’s happening with the Buccaneers as they prepare to face the Cardinals.

The Bucs’ offensive line has played well above average in pass protection thus far this season. If that trend continues and quarterback Jameis Winston doesn’t repeat the 4 interception game from a year ago. Their passing game should have no problem keeping the chains moving and getting into the redzone.

All things considered, 2-2 is an okay place for the Bucs to be right now. There are some winnable games coming up over the next few weeks. Tampa Bay needs to take advantage, starting on Sunday in Arizona against the struggling Cardinals.

For the past couple of years, the Bucs have lost games they should win. This feels like one of those games. Tampa Bay is better than Arizona. But something feels off about this one. Bucs struggle and lose.

If the Bucs are going to walk out of Arizona with a win, they will need to shut down the trio of receivers that Arizona has. Larry Fitzgerald, J.J. Nelson and Jaron Brown will attempt to put on an aerial attack versus the Bucs Sunday, can they handle the heat?

How Winston responds Sunday will tell us quite a bit about his progression. When the teams met last season, Arizona’s blitz derailed the young quarterback, who was starting just the 18th game of his career. In the 40-7 loss, Winston completed half of his passes, threw four picks and posted a 39.2 rating. It stands as the worst game of his career.

“Last year was unfortunate for us,” said quarterback Jameis Winston, who had a career-high five turnovers, including four interceptions, in what remains the lowest-rated game of his three-year NFL career. “The turnovers kind of put us out of it. … Turning the ball over was the biggest part.”

The Bucs have a rough recent history at the Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium, losing 40-7 there last year, but one Tampa Bay player has great memories of playing on that field.

Rookie TE O.J. Howard had a breakout game in the national championship game against Clemson in January 2016, catching five passes for 208 yards and a pair of long touchdowns — 53 and 51 yards — in Alabama’s 45-40 win.

From the time general manager Jason Licht boldly traded into the second round of the 2016 NFL draft for Roberto Aguayo to Aguayo’s well-documented struggles to the subsequent struggles of replacement Nick Folk, no team has drawn more attention or scrutiny for its kicking woes than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It was the type of moment Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie safety Justin Evans dreamed about. The first series of his first NFL start. A prime-time game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. A badly overthrown pass intended for Chris Hogan. Evans pounced on it for the first interception of his NFL career.

Now that the Buccaneers are 2-2 and a quarter of the way through the regular season, it’s time to check in on the rest of the NFC. What does Tampa Bay’s path to the playoffs look like? Let’s size up the competition (playoff odds courtesy of Football Outsiders).

If you ask around the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ locker room, the Arizona game in Week 2 last year is still somewhat of a sore subject. They turned the ball over five times and lost 40-7. Quarterback Jameis Winston threw four interceptions.

Through their first four games, there’s been obvious winners during that span. Winning comes with accolades and awards. Let’s look at those players and what you can look forward to from them during the second quarter of football.

With the first quarter of the season completed the Buccaneers now have to prove whether they’re the same mediocre team from last year, or an improved playoff competitor. Against the Cardinals on Sunday they can show how far they’ve come. Unless they’ve managed to bleach their memory clear of it, I doubt many Buccaneer fans have forgotten what happened in week two of last season.

The Bucs and Cardinals are in different places roster-wise. Tampa Bay is up-and-coming and hoping to contend. Arizona fields a lot of veteran talent looking for a last shot at making a Super Bowl run. Regardless, there are going to be some great athletes on the field on Sunday afternoon. Which five can most impact the game’s final score?

The reality is that the Buccaneers aren’t the best team in the division, and they’re not even close right now. They’ve struggled to get to 2-2 against a fairly weak schedule and while they haven’t been bad, they’ve been disappointing—and nowhere near the best team in the division.

The Buccaneers’ injury-plauged defense could be getting some support this weekend, partictularly at linebacker. Both Lavonte David and Kwon Alexander returned to practice on Wednesday, as did safety T.J. Ward. Here is the Buccaneers’ full injury report:

Winston’s lowest-rated effort in his 36 career games came in last year’s loss at Arizona — a 39.8 rating, matching his career high with four interceptions with only one touchdown pass in 52 attempts. Winston only has three interceptions in his first four games this season — none in the last two — and Arians likes what he’s seen.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all 32 team owners on Tuesday, saying a proposal would be discussed at next week’s league meetings that would require all players to stand during the anthem. Other Bucs players on Tuesday expressed their appreciation for the freedom that the Bucs — both from the Glazer family that owns the team to coach Dirk Koetter — allowed players to express themselves as they wanted on the issue.

Murray rejoined the Bucs this week. It didn’t matter to him that the last two kickers who came through Tampa Bay — Nick Folk, who was released on Monday, and Roberto Aguayo, who was waived during the preseason — struggled miserably.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in the midst of plenty of roster moves this week. The Bucs signed Patrick Murray to become Nick Folk’s new replacement and on Tuesday, the Bucs signed defensive end Larry Webster to the practice squad. In the corresponding move, the Buccaneers parted ways with fullback Austin Johnson.

On Monday, the Buccaneers signed Murray, who most recently kicked for the Cleveland Browns last fall, to replace kicker Nick Folk. Folk was placed on injured reserve with a “minor injury” classification. Murray gets a second go-around with his first team after handling the Buccaneers’ kicking duties during the 2014 season.

We only talk about the value of a mini bye after a team wins. When the team wins, it’s because of the corrections and adjustments it made during the break. When it loses, it just continued to play bad football.

The Bucs have only four sacks in their first four games — three came in Thursday’s loss to the Patriots — and the pass rush may have taken another hit as Ryan Russell dislocated his shoulder in Thursday’s game. There has been no word on any additional damage that may have been sustained in the injury.

The Bucs’ early game Thursday night put them back even with all but two NFL teams in playing four games each entering Sunday, and as a statistical quirk, the Bucs have four players with at least 200 receiving — Mike Evans (276), DeSean Jackson (249), Adam Humphries (207) and Cameron Brate (205). Only one other NFL team can boast that — the Patriots, who have five such players but have also now played five games.

Between his performance Thursday night and in the preseason — when, at one point, he was averaging 6.0 yards per carry — imagine how much more juice Martin can give, especially next week against an Arizona Cardinals defense that ripped Winston to shreds last season with four interceptions.